Teaching young girls about careers in the plumbing/heating trades

Uponor trainers recently taught a group of 200+ young girls about PEX systems at TXT 2012, a week-long exploration camp for girls promoting the worlds of technology and science at Dakota County Technical College (Rosemount, Minn.).

Girls at TXT 2012 not only learned about PEX in plumbing, fire sprinkler and radiant systems, but also how fun it can be to make hula hoops with the product. (Photo credits: Uponor).

Uponor Customer Trainer Steve Swanson and Training Manager Wes Cisco recently taught a group of 200+ young girls about PEX systems at TXT 2012, a week-long exploration camp for girls promoting the worlds of technology and science at Dakota County Technical College (Rosemount, Minn.). They were invited to speak about PEX tubing and its use in radiant heating and cooling, plumbing and fire sprinkler systems, as well as show the girls how to make ProPEX connections by making hula hoops out of PEX tubing.

Linda Foster, director of Instructional Technology at DCTC and the organizer of TXT 2012, started the program because she wanted girls to know that it is OK to explore career opportunities in the trades, get dirty and be smart.

Uponor’s Steve Swanson shows a group of girls at TXT 2012 how to make a ProPEX connection with a Milwaukee M12 ProPEX Expansion Tool.

“I wanted my daughters to have professional opportunities not limited by gender stereotypes, and I want other people’s daughters to know there are opportunities beyond traditional female careers,” she said.

At least once a year, I write a feature article in Plumbing & Mechanical about women in the plumbing industry. And while “Women in Plumbing” tends to focus on women running their own plumbing contracting businesses, I do write about women in the field repairing faucets, replacing toilets and water heaters, and digging trenches - smart women who love getting dirty. Click here to read about women plumbers in Georgia and New York.

Maybe we should expand our coverage to “Women in Heating.” Any women out there installing radiant heating, geothermal or solar thermal systems? Repairing boilers and water heaters? If you’re interested in telling your story, email me at faloonk@bnpmedia.com.

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Kelly Faloon was a former editor of Plumbing & Mechanical as well as the BNP Media Plumbing Group’s Integrated Content Development Specialist. She also was a former editor of the Radiant Comfort Guide the Radiant & Hydronics Report — both official publications of the Radiant Professionals Alliance — and twice-monthly Radiant & Hydronics eNews, an enewsletter for anyone interested in the world of heating with hot water.

Her editorial specialties included women in plumbing, recruiting for the trades, green construction techniques, water conservation, water treatment, hydronic heating, radiant heating and cooling, snow melt, solar thermal and geothermal.

After a 3½-year stint at sister publication Supply House Times, Faloon joined the PM staff in December 2001 as senior editor. She was named PM’s managing editor in 2006 and editor in 2013.

Previously, she spent nearly 10 years at CCH, a publishing firm specializing in business and tax law, where she wore many hats — proofreader, writer/editor for a daily tax publication, and Internal Revenue Code editor.

A native of Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula, Faloon is a 1986 journalism graduate of Michigan State University.